A University of Michigan Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop

When: September 25, 4PM
Where: Hatcher Graduate Library, Room 100
Abstract: This talk examines the lesser-known work and legacy of Dennis Gabor. Gabor was a physicist famous for inventing holography. But he also applied quantum theory to sound, and in so doing offered an important corrective to prevailing interpretations of wave theories of sound derived from Joseph Fourier’s work. To prove his point, Gabor built a device called the “kinematic frequency compressor,” which could time-stretch or pitch-shift audio independently of the other operation, a feat previously considered impossible in the analog domain. After considering the machine, I trace its technical and cultural descendants in advertising, cinema, avant-garde music, and today in the world’s most popular audio software, Ableton Live.

Please join the Digital Environments Workshop and the Department of Communication Studies for a lecture by Adrienne Shaw

When: April 10, 4PMWhere: 2435 NQWhat:

There has been a great deal of attention to gay content in mainstream games and queer content in independently produced games. More than just study the presence of queerness in games, I think the time is ripe to consider more rigorously what queer theory contributes to game studies. Specifically, I will focus on the insights from queer theory that can be used to rethink the methods and discourses of game studies as an area of research. In doing so, I begin with queerness as a method of analysis, as described by Gayle Salamon (2009). Drawing on my past research with marginalized gaming audiences I will discuss the ways in which game studies has tended to rely on descriptive and normalizing research, but argue that queer theory provides a much needed critical lens to many of the issues that are the core of game studies. In particular, drawing on the work of people like Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Gayle Rubin (1993), Michael Warner, Sara Ahmed, and Jack Halberstam, I want to interrogate discourses surrounding who, where, and how games are played. Queer theory, along with its intersections with feminist and postcolonial theory, and critical race, postcolonial theory, disability and trans studies (to name a few), has always been about a politic of inquiry and not just a subject of study. In my presentation I will address how might we use those insights to push game studies, and in turn games, forward?

When: March 26, 4PMWhere: 3512 Haven HallWhat: A close-reading of Assassin’s Creed III and Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation examining how indigenous studies intersect with video game studies, especially at the sites of structure, narrative, racial representations, and temporality and the ways that indigeneity disrupts the colonial logics of code, law and sovereignty.

In addition to the free games listed, merritt has asked that we play one of her commercial games, Consensual Torture Simulator. If you are planning to attend the workshop, please RSVP, and we will send you a copy of the game.

Please join the Digital Environments Workshop for a lecture by merritt kopas.

When: March 14, 1PM
Where: NQ 2435What:
The last few years have seen a radical expansion of trans narratives and of the field of videogames and interactive fiction. Trans women activists have made a tremendous range of lives not only imaginable, but possible. At the same time, the availability of tools that require little or no programming and the growth of supportive communities has led to a broadening of authorship in games. This expansion has meant a wider range of people making games, people who are often pursuing the medium for its expressive qualities rather than with the goal of mass commercial success. Many of the people working in this newly opened space are trans women who are creating work that is exploring new possibilities both within literary traditions and established modes of videogames. With these developments in mind, this talk has two goals. First, I will tell a new history of recent shifts and expansions in digital games and interactive fiction that restores trans women’s work to the forefront. Second, I will claim digital games and hypertext as a critical site for the elaboration of new trans narratives in the face of the continued dismissal of digital games by more established arts and literature channels, arguing that anyone interested in new forms of trans discourse cannot afford to ignore the fruitful intersections of writing and digital play.

Please join us on November 8 at 1:00pm in NQ 5450 for our second annual roundtable featuring University of Michigan faculty discussing the works that have influenced their own thinking about digital media and culture. This year, our panel consists of:

The Digital Environments Workshop invites you to our 2013 Fall mixer! Please join us in kicking off the year and in welcoming our new co-organizer (Melissa Chalmers) and faculty co-mentor (Lisa Nakamura). Come hear about events and workshops we are in the process of planning, and meet graduate students and faculty interested in digital culture. Please bring any suggestions you may have for future events.

Please join the Digital Environments Workshop for a workshop on teaching digital media with Prof. Lisa Nakamura. Prof. Nakamura will share strategies for putting together effective syllabi, designing non-traditional assignments, and encouraging students to think critically about media they use (and take for granted) every day. The workshop will take place on April 24 from 12:00-1:00 in the Communication Studies Conference Room (NQ 5450). Please RSVP if you plan to attend. We hope to see you there!